Recipes for Thanksgiving Day dinner that won't kill your diet

The holidays are full of foods loaded with sugars and ingredients that aren't great for your waistline. Wine, cheese, mashed potatoes, pie, and more wine is probably on the docket for a lot of your Thanksgiving dinners or holiday parties. It's basically a landmine for people trying to shed a few pounds... But it doesn't have to be!

We reached out to Kristen Coffield of the Culinary Cure to share a few recipe alternatives to some of Thanksgiving's most calorie/carb filled dishes. These recipes won't kill the Thanksgiving Day vibe or your diet!

Cauliflower Moc-N-Cheese

Ingredients:

1 head cauliflower, broken into florets

1 cup whole milk

2 oz cream cheese cubed

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

12 oz grated cheese of choice

1/2 tsp garlic powder

salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

Cook cauliflower in in a microwave silicone vegetable steamer or steam until crisp tender.

In a large pot heat milk, cream cheese and dijon mustard until about to boil.

Add cheese and garlic powder and stir until melted.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Add cauliflower to pot with cheese mixture and coat completely.

Place in oiled baking dish and bake at 350 for 20 minutes. Broil on high for 2 minutes or until brown and bubbly.

Garnish with fresh thyme.

Eggplant Sage Stuffing

Ingredients:

1 cup chopped celery

3 minced shallots

3 medium eggplant, peeled and cubed

1 stick butter melted

2-3 tsp fresh thyme

3 beaten eggs

Olive oil

Salt & pepper

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 400.

Drizzle olive oil over cubed eggplant, add a couple of pinches of salt.

Add grinds of pepper and toss well to mix.

Place cubed eggplant on a greased cookie sheet, or two, spread out and bake for 30-40 minutes or until eggplant is starting to crisp and dry.

Saute celery and shallots in butter until crisp tender.

Whisk eggs, add fresh thyme.

Combine eggplant cubes with celery and shallots.

Add egg and butter mixture to eggplant combining well.

Place in buttered baking dish.

Bake uncovered at 375 for 45 minutes.

Sweet Potato Waffles with Pecan Crunch

Waffle Ingredients:

2 medium sweet potatoes scrubbed and cut in half

1/2 a sweet onion with skin removed

2 eggs whisked together

2 tablespoons coconut flour

Crunch Ingredients

1/2 cup chopped pecans

2 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp curry powder

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp granola

Pinch of finishing salt

Directions:

Heat waffle iron to high.

Using a vegetable spiralizer cut the sweet potatoes and onion into spaghetti thick spirals.

Toss sweet potato and onion spirals together and mix well with 2 eggs and coconut flour. Let sit for 15 minutes.

Add maple syrup to pan and mix well over low heat until mixture begins to dry, add more butter if it sticks to the pan.

Place 1 cup of sweet potato, egg mixture on to each waffle spot on a WELL GREASED waffle iron.

Cook until crispy, I did 3-5 minutes each waffle. Should be browned and crisp.

Serve with pecan crisp sprinkled over top.

Healthier Baked Pear Crisp

Ingredients:

2 firm Bosc or Bartlett pears, washed and sliced vertically

4 tbsp butter or coconut oil

1/2 cup old fashioned organic oats

2 tbsp almond flour

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 tbsp ground cinnamon

Directions:

Pre heat oven to 400

Using a melon baller carefully core and remove seeds from pears. Place on parchment lined baking sheet cut side up.

Combine the rest of the ingredients in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until mixture is well combined and crumbly.

Using a spoon mound crisp topping onto the pear halves, pressing gently to help it adhere to the pears.

Bake in middle of 400 oven for 30 minutes.

Cranberry Margaritas

(Makes two cocktails and extra compote)

Cranberry Compote

3 cups fresh cranberries

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 lemon juiced

1 tbsp grated lemon zest

1 tbsp grated fresh ginger

*Skewer extra cranberries on toothpicks for garnish

Directions:

Combine first three ingredients in a sauce pan and simmer until cranberries burst and reduce to a thick compote.

Stir zest and ginger into the compote. Set aside.

Nutmeg Rim Salt

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp finely grated lemon peel

1 tsp nutmeg

1 lemon wedge

1 cup of ice

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a dish larger than the rim of the glasses you will be using.

Use lemon wedge to moisten glass rims and dip into rim salt mixture.

Margaritas

1 oz fresh lime juice

2 oz fresh orange juice

3 oz 100% blue agave blanco tequila

2 tbsp cranberry compote

Directions:

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Pour in glasses with rims dipped in the nutmeg rim salt. Garnish with cranberries on toothpicks and a lime wedge.

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